BRAZIL on Course to Become the Hegemonic Power in Latin America

Brazil's economic growth over the past two decades has led its foreign policy elite to seek a more prominent role for Brazil in the international community. Brazil is the sixth most populous country, was the ninth largest economy in 2018, and is the largest Latin American country, occupying about 40% of the total area of the South American region. In fact, Brazil has a common border with all the other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile. The goal of the present study is to examine Brazil's hegemonic capacity as one of the most powerful Latin American countries. In this regard, the main question of the present article is what capacities Brazil has to pursue a hegemonic status. In response, the research hypothesis is that Brazil’s apparent superiority as a regional power can result in its militarily hegemonic capacity, but such capacity to be practically manifested might faces some challenges in terms of acceptance by some regional powers as well as the US. It should be noted that this study has been conducted within the theoretical framework of hegemony and the descriptive-analytical method.